HOME

COP27, what's going on?

2022-11-11
COP27, what's going on?
COP27, what's going on? source

COP27 is not very calm yet: the agenda of climate compensation, the dissatisfaction of social activists... What are the highlights of this COP? What's the point?

COP Background: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC)

The United Nations holds a world conference every year to discuss how the world should respond to climate change and global warming. The name of this conference is "Conference of Parties" (COP). COP27 is the 27th UN climate conference.

Participating in the COP consists of signatories to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which includes all UN member states, plus Palestine, the Cook Islands, Niue, and The Holy See participating as treaty observers, in total 197 parties.

Since the UNFCCC was signed in 1992, many well-known international consensus on climate action has come from COP conferences, such as:

  • 1997 COP3 The Kyoto Protocol, establishing a consensus that "greenhouse gas levels must be stabilized at a certain level"
  • 2009 COP15 The Copenhagen meeting put forward national greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for 2020, and rich countries pledged to provide climate finance assistance to reach the standard of 100 billion US dollars per year after 2020 (unfortunately not achieved)
  • 2015 COP21 The "Paris Agreement" was signed, which established the goal of "controlling the global average temperature increase to within 2°C of the pre-industrial level before the end of this century."
  • The 2021 COP26 "Glasgow Climate Agreement", for the first time, included "phasing down fossil fuels" into the final document and established a 2050 net-zero consensus.

However, the COP has also been criticized as a greenwashing conference because its political mediation and inconclusive meetings. Therefore, whether COPs can achieve effective international consensus and real action is the focus of governments and civil society.

COP27 will be held for two weeks from November 6 to November 18, 2022 at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

COP27將於2022年11月6日到11月18日舉行為期兩週的會議,地點在埃及紅海度假村Sharm el-Sheikh
COP27 will be held for two weeks from November 6 to November 18, 2022 at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt。 source

What is the special significance of COP27?

2022 is a year full of climate disasters. As Africa is home to many climate-affected countries, it is of special significance to host COP27.

"The work ahead of us is enormous, as massive as the global climate shock we have seen... A third of Pakistan is flooded, Europe encountered hottest summer in 500 years, Philippine smacked, Cuba in darkness... In the US, Hurricane Ian also brutally reminds us that no country, no economy, is immune to the crisis of climate disasters." UN Secretary-General António Guterres at COP27 speech.

Because of the climate disaster background in 2022 and the location of this year's venue, what COP27 can achieve on climate justice issues is the biggest focus of this year's conference.

While the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) report still states that we are heading to the critical point. "COP27 is critical, but we still have a long way to go, " said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

Why is COP27 so controversial?

This year's COP27 has not been quiet. When arranging the agenda, the parties fought back and forth on whether to include "Loss and Damage" on the agenda, resulting in a delay in the start of the meeting.

The fact that COP27 was held in Egypt was also criticized.

On the one hand, Egypt has no clear net-zero carbon emissions route of its own. Its latest National Determined Contribution (NDC) submitted was rated as "Highly Insufficient" and was deemed by Climate Action Tracker . "...lack of transparency, making any quantitative assessment very difficult...the local government does not need to implement any policy changes , can easily meet its latest soft carbon reduction targets.”

On the other hand, it is because of the poor record of basic human rights issues in Egypt. At least 65,000 political prisoners remain in prison, according to estimates by the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI).

Egypt human rights advocate Mona Seif criticized: "the ones who actually give a damn about the planet's future are those languishing in prisons"

大部分COP27參與者選擇忽視的現實,不只是人權問題與氣候正義緊緊相關,也是因為在埃及境內,那些真正在乎氣候議題的人,目前都在監獄裡萎靡著。
Egyptian human rights advocate Mona Seif criticized COP27 on Twitter. source

The strict control of public demonstrations have is also controversial. "The space for civil society will be extremely limited," said Greta Thunberg, a Swedish environmentalist. "It is important to leave some space for those who need to go there. The voices of the demonstrators will be hard to hear."

That's why some climate justice advocates, including well-known Canadian journalist Naomi Klein, called COP27 the "Carceral Climate Summit".

COP27 Key Take-aways

Loss and Damage

"Loss and Damage" is the most closely watched topic at this year's COP27.

As the major carbon emitters, rich countries are the main causes of climate change, but climate-affected countries are all small countries with very little carbon emissions, hence the climate injustice. Affected countries believe that rich countries should compensate for the "loss and damage" of the affected countries, and this compensation is named "Loss and Damage Fund".

In fact, as early as 1991, the Alliance of Small Island States has publicly called on the international community to provide a compensation mechanism for climate-affected countries. At the 2009 COP15 Copenhagen meeting, rich countries also pledged to provide climate finance, starting from 2020 to provide 100 billion US dollars a year to help developing countries fight climate change. However, this promise has not been fulfilled.

At the COP26 Glasgow meeting in 2021, developing countries once again proposed that a "Loss and Damage Fund" should be established, but this was again opposed by advanced countries.

In climate justice discussions, "funding" is the hardest point of contention. The IPCC estimates that the world still needs 46 trillion dollars of related investment per year to have a chance to reverse the climate change situation, which is 36 times the current climate investment of various countries. Egypt's Environment Agency Minister Yasmine Fouad also told COP27 that Africa still needs 41.6 trillion of funds to deal with climate shocks before 2030. In the next few years, African fish and crop harvests will be significantly affected by climate, while sea level rise will affect 116 million population.

在氣候正義的討論裡,「資金」是最難解的爭議點。
In climate justice discussions, "funding" is the hardest point of contention.(MOHAMMED ABED/AFP)

Disaster-affected countries are damaged by climate change caused by the carbon emissions of rich countries, and of course they should be compensated. However, rich countries are also worried that once the compensation is established, it will open the door to endless climate litigation.

After several struggles this year, the issue of Loss and Damage has finally been placed on the official agenda. The community is closely watching what the final outcome will be.

Energy Crisis and Trust

It has been nearly a year since the Ukrainian-Russian war. Putin closed the "North Stream 1" natural gas pipeline as a means of retaliation for the Western collective economic sanctions.

Natural gas is an important transitional means for Europe's energy transition. Europe is facing this threat, coupled with the rise of raw materials and inflation caused by regional conflicts, epidemics, and war factors, and public grievances are everywhere. Many countries are considering delaying the green energy process, or even extending the retirement of coal-fired power plants.

Europe used to be the early stage of energy transition and net-zero carbon reduction. How to stabilize its performance under the challenges of internal and external troubles will be the key to this COP27.

Key three: Accelerate the net-zero schedule

Swiss Research Shows that the world is not on the right path to net-zero emissions by 2050.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) just released Emissions Gap Report 2022 that 2021 The annual global greenhouse gas emission is as high as 52.8 billion tons of CO2e, which is higher than that in 2019 before the epidemic. The report also predicts that if the current situation continues, global warming will reach 2.8°C by the end of this century, which is higher than the 2.7°C estimated last year.

Furthermore, even if all countries reach the submitted National Self-Determination Contribution (NDC), they can only control the temperature rise within the range of 2.4~2.6℃.

就算各國都達成提交的國家自決貢獻(NDC),也只能控制升溫在2.4~2.6℃範圍內。
Even if all countries reach the submitted National Self-Determination Contribution (NDC), they can only control the temperature rise within the range of 2.4~2.6℃. source

Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) are the annual carbon reduction goals that each country has to submit by itself, and explain how the country will achieve it. For example this one is the Egyptian version.

The Climate Action Tracker also tracks and scores NDCs submitted by countries every year. After the last COP26, only 28 countries submitted their submissions in 2022 this year, of which only 5 countries have more ambitious carbon reduction targets, which in total will only reduce 500 million tons of carbon dioxide, which is less than 1% of global carbon emissions.

就算各國都達成提交的國家自決貢獻(NDC),也只能控制升溫在2.4~2.6℃範圍內。
Only 28 countries will submit NDCs this year for 2022, of which only 5 have more ambitious carbon reduction targets. source

"We are on the highway to climate hell with one foot on the gas pedal." warned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Further reading:

All things about ESG

Carbon pricing, carbon trading, carbon neutrality, net zero, carbon tariffs, carbon capture, carbon budgets... 16 carbon terms you must know!

More Articles

Combogic Tech. is expected to conduct academic exchanges at the Advances in Reliability workshop of Academia Sinica in November

Combogic Tech. is expected to conduct academic exchanges at the Advances in Reliability workshop of Academia Sinica in November

Combogic Tech. will hold an academic exchange at the Advances in Reliability workshop of Academia Sinica in November. Download the speech outline.

Read Article
Combogic Tech. and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University Statistics Institute Statistical Consulting course for academic exchanges

Combogic Tech. and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University Statistics Institute Statistical Consulting course for academic exchanges

In October this year, Combogic Tech. conducted academic exchanges with students in the Statistical Consulting class of the Institute of Statistics of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. During the talk, Ka-Un Chiu, Marketing Director of Combogic Tech., introduced the status quo and problems of global sustainability management, as well as the solutions proposed by Combogic Tech. to investigate the difficulties in Scope 3. In terms of vehicles, Combogic Tech. propose data analysis to communicate with teachers and students of the Institute of Statistics for one semester.

Read Article
Potential to reduce vehicle carbon emissions by 45%! How does the concept of green driving apply to fleet management?

Potential to reduce vehicle carbon emissions by 45%! How does the concept of green driving apply to fleet management?

According to EU data, from 1990 to 2019, carbon emission sources such as home, energy, agriculture, and industry have all decreased year by year, but only the “road transport” category of carbon emissions has not decreased but increased. Road carbon emissions is the most difficult part to reduce, and perhaps green driving can be a solution.

Read Article
Carbon pricing, carbon trading, carbon neutrality, net zero, carbon tariffs, carbon capture, carbon budgets... 16 carbon terms you must know!

Carbon pricing, carbon trading, carbon neutrality, net zero, carbon tariffs, carbon capture, carbon budgets... 16 carbon terms you must know!

concise Carbon Dictionary, get started in three minutes, suitable for chatting about current affairs and showing common sense

Read Article
About ESG, an article makes it clear

About ESG, an article makes it clear

Even Nestle announced that the future KitKat will be `carbon neutral chocolate`. Why is ESG suddenly hot in the corporate world? Should you put ESG on the strategy map? In this article, let's talk about the mystery of ESG certification.

Read Article
READ MORE